How Important Are Babies?

Families, communities, and nations are stronger when individuals value babies. Wise parents will value their children because they are blessings in the home as well as the community and nation. Wise adults will help their nation to maintain a replacement birthrate because a replacement birthrate is essential to maintain social functions in communities and nations. The value of maintaining a replacement birthrate can be seen in the experiences of China and Japan.

In the 1980s, China instituted its one-child policy, and women having more than one child were forced to have abortions and pay fines. Recognizing the future effects of the policy, China changed the policy in 2015 to two children and in 2021 to three children per couple. In addition, China is offering financial incentives, better maternity benefits, etc. to encourage couples to have more children. The incentives are not working, and China is worried that it will follow the path of Japan. 

On Monday, the prime minister of Japan said that his country is “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” due to the falling birthrate. He called the situation a “now or never” one that “simply cannot wait any longer.” 

What is a replacement birthrate? The replacement birthrate is 2.1. This means that every couple should have more than two children. One could say that it means that every two couples should have five children between them. Most of the nations in the world are below the replacement birthrate, including the United States. The population of the United States is growing because there are many immigrants entering our nations, and the immigrants tend to have more children than American couples.

Japan was able to survive this long because they invited people from other nations, including China, into their nation. Now that China is also struggling to maintain its social functions, Japan may no longer be able to entice them to immigrate to Japan.

Babies are important because they grow up to join the workforce and help the economy of the nation. As adults, they will care for their parents and grandparents. Such adults would also be expected to have babies to replace them.

China is in trouble today because they limited the birth of babies for four decades. Those babies who were not born are not helping the economy, caring for the older generations, or having babies of their own. The Chinese one-child policy was a bad policy.

The Bible teaches us that “children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalms 127:3). When husbands and wives welcome two or more children into their home, they bring blessings into their own lives. In addition, they strengthen their communities and nations by providing a replacement birthrate.